| Quote #7 The abbé lowered the green shade and said: "Now, Monsieur, I am listening. Speak." |
Edmond, who has taken on the role of Monte Cristo but is in disguise, talks about one of his other aliases, and fabricates a new identity for his fictional count, all in order to throw off one investigator. It's a thing of beauty, really.
| Quote #8 "To me, a good servant is one over whom I have the power of life and death." |
The power over life and death is definitely the ultimate form of control. That Edmond should need to have it over every servant speaks to his exacting (and ruthless) nature.
| Quote #9 "Suppose that the Lord God, after creating the world, after fertilizing the void, had stopped one-third of the way through His creation to spare an angel the tears that our crimes would one day bring to His immortal eyes. Suppose that, having prepared everything, kneaded everything, seeded everything, at the moment when He was about to admire his work, God had extinguished the sun and with His foot dashed the world into eternal night, then you will have some idea…Or, rather, no…No, even then you cannot have any idea of what I am losing by losing my life at this moment." (89.71) |
Edmond goes beyond describing himself as a controller or a manipulator and casts himself as a creator. And not just any creator, mind you, but God.